Man arrested after Call of Duty ‘swatting’ hoax call turns deadly

Police in Los Angeles have arrested a man they suspect made a hoax emergency call that resulted in a police officer shooting another man dead in Wichita, Kansas.

Wichita police have said they believe the 911 call which led to the shooting was a case of "swatting" — where hoaxers deliberately make up a false report to get a SWAT team or other police officers to raid an address.

Tyler Barriss, 25, was arrested in Los Angeles on Friday, according to the Los Angeles Police Department and the Wichita Police Department.

Court records showed Barriss was convicted in 2016 on two counts of making a false bomb report to a TV station in Glendale, California, and sent to Los Angeles County jail for two years. Jail records show he was released in January.

Authorities have not released the name of the man who was killed on Thursday, but relatives have identified him as 28-year-old Andrew Finch.

Wichita Deputy Police Chief Troy Livingston said investigators were tracking online leads, and a law enforcement official who earlier confirmed Barriss's arrest said the shooting stemmed from a dispute over Call of Duty.

Officer Paul Cruz, a spokesman for the Wichita police, said the two city police departments are working with the FBI on the case, but provided no further details including on possible charges or extradition.

Victim was shot on his own doorstep

In audio of the 911 call played by Wichita police at a news conference, a man said he shot his father in the head and that he was holding his mother and brother at gunpoint.

The caller, speaking with relative calm, also said he poured gasoline inside the home "and I might just set it on fire".

Officers subsequently surrounded the home at the address the caller provided and prepared for a hostage situation. When Mr Finch went to the door, police told him to put his hands up and move slowly.

But Chief Livingston said the man moved a hand toward his waistband — a common place where guns are concealed.

An officer, fearing the man was reaching for a gun, fired a single shot. Finch died a few minutes later at a hospital. Chief Livingston said Finch was unarmed.

The officer, a seven-year veteran of the department, is on paid leave pending the investigation.

Mr Finch's mother Lisa Finch told reporters "that cop murdered my son over a false report in the first place".

In addition to the 911 call, police also released a brief video of body camera footage from another officer at the scene. It showed police were parked over the road from the house when the fatal shot was fired.

The FBI estimates that roughly 400 cases of swatting occur annually, with some using caller ID spoofing to disguise their number.

An FBI supervisor in Kansas City, Missouri, which covers all of Kansas, said the agency joined in the investigation at the request of local police.

In other cases of apparent swatting, three families in Florida had to evacuate their homes in January after a detective received an anonymous email claiming bombs had been placed at the address.